9 replies to this topic

[Minto1]

I'm a 19 year old driver and my renewal came through from footman james at a ridiculous price, £400 more than last year, so I was wondering, will decreasing the milage limit bring the premium down significantly? Also for some reason on the renewal they don't seem to have any record of me being a member of the BMC, will telling them this decrease it any further. I am going to ring them at some point, but I'm rather busy and don't have the time to wait around on hold for half an hour
Also, I was thinking as I may not even use my Mini for the next 4 weeks or so, could I just get the policy to start up again when I want, saving me money when I won't even be using the car? How does this work in regard to Road Tax, will I have to get a SORN? Also if I have some non continuous insurance, will I still be able to get one of those "letters of no claims" from Footman James sometime?

Thanks muchly if anyone can help

[AVV IT]

Footman James are just a specialist insurance broker and the underwriter that they used for most of their classic policies (Equity Red Star) no longer insures under 21's, so they have had to find an alternative provider that does. The new provider seems to have higher premiums, which is the reason for the increase.

Reducing your mileage limit may reduce your premium to some extent, but in my experience it doesn't make a huge amount of difference unless you are reducing the mileage drastically. Also some insurers have a set minimum mileage limit, so you may find that reducing it from say 5,000 miles to 3,000 miles per year makes no difference, if 5000 miles is the minimum amount. This will differ from insurer to insurer though, so you need to check with Footman to see if it will make a difference in your case.

If your car is taxed, then legally it now has to be insured as well. So if you choose to take your car off the road for a few weeks and not insure it, then you will have to declare it as SORN. Be aware though that you will have to then surrender your TAX disc and send it off to DVLA for a refund. I believe that the DVLA only refund you to the value of nearest complete month of tax remaining, so depending on when you surrender your tax disc, you could lose out on the cost of up to 29 days or so of road tax. The other issue is that if you take your car off the road for a few weeks and don't insure it could still be stolen from wherever you keep it . Without any insurance you would get nothing back if this were to happen.

You should be able to request a letter of "claim free driving" from Footman as soon as you leave them, or your policy with them lapses etc. Assuming that these letters work in the same way as conventional "proof of no claims bonus" does, then insurers tend to accept such proof so long as it is issued within the previous two years. So you should be able to use one of Footmans "claim free driving letters" against another policy with another insurer for the next two years or so, (so long as they actually accept Footmans "claim free driving letters" as proof of no claims, that is!)

Edited by AVV IT, 25 April 2012 - 03:09 PM.

[Minto1]

Ahh right thanks, still not entirely sure what I shall do then....
Do you think if I get insurance from Footman James again to start, say at the end of May, then next year would I still be able to (touch wood) get a "2 years no claims" letter even if the 2 years weren't consecutive?

[Bungle]

sounds like you need to pick up the phone and talk to someone

[Minto1]

Yeah I know, I've been busy recently and of course they close at about 5pm. Putting the mileage down on the online quote thing reduces it by a bit, but thats when it thinks I'm 25. I'm not sure I have any other option than Footman James, as Peter James and other classic insurers don't do under 25s and most mainstream insurers will be very expensive.

[lapider]

im was in a situation like yours try aviva or elephant insurance failing that providing some people arnt getting quotes under 1750 from FJ may be forth just taking it.

i know for a fact that if you talk to AVIVA no clames department they can accept a letter of years free driving as a 1 years NCB as thats what happend to me.

[Minto1]

I was thinking along those lines as well, that I may not be able to get anything good from FJ if I just leave it for a month or so. I'll try phoning up elephant and aviva, as online they have either been very expensive or just told me I may qualify for a classic discount

[AVV IT]

Do you think if I get insurance from Footman James again to start, say at the end of May, then next year would I still be able to (touch wood) get a "2 years no claims" letter even if the 2 years weren't consecutive?

I think you would probably need to ask them that question!!

[Minto1]

Yeah, been searching round and phoning today, went on confused.com and a quote from Adrian Flux came up for £795, and some company called eCar for £652!? I am very confused, going to give Adrian Flux a ring and see what the say, as I thought they stopped insuring young drivers

[Minto1]

Well adrian flux was actually £1240 odd pounds, because they don't recognise the years claim free driving from Footman James, and Footman James aren't allowed to amend the existing policy so I'd have to pay £1120 or get stuffed. This is annoying, what insurers actually recognise the claim free driving letters? Dammit what will I do.....